Killings: Senate begins push for state police

The Senate has mandated its committee on constitution review to urgently initiate moves for further review of the constitution to accommodate the establishment of state police.

The senators were reacting to the killings in Plteau villlages.

Senator Adamu Aliero, (APC Kebbi Central) set the stage for the need to establish state police in the course of narrating how one of his aides was burnt to death when he ran into attackers on a Plateau highway.

Many of the lawmakers agreed with Aliero, as they vehemently rebuffed the objection raised by Senator Kabiru Marafa (APC Zamfara Central) on the matter.

The debate followed a motion moved by Senator David Jonah Jang ( PDP Plateau South) who condemned the wanton killings of some people in his constituency.

Jang lamented what h described as the helplessness of the security agencies, particularly the police in responding to the attacks.

Jang, in the motion, said 155 people were killed in the attack, which he said, were carried out by herdsmen, adding that 98 of the victims were from Mangu local government.

The ex Plateau State Governor lamented that the attacks went on for several hours without any of the security agencies coming to the rescue of the victims.

Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, lent his weight to the call, saying “I have been saying it here anytime issues of senseless killings in the land come up; that creation of state police is the way out since the centralised police have proved to be incapable of addressing the problem .

“By tomorrow (today) or next, a bill for constitutional provision for state and community policing shall be sponsored by me in this chamber”.

President of the SenateBukola Saraki said: “These are acts of criminality and we should not encourage any other colouration to it. Be it religious. This is criminality and as such we have a role to ensure that we must address this criminality

“We believe there is need for urgent review of the security architecture. We must not only see from the point of view that there is danger to security.

“There is also danger if we really believe that we are going to push our economy, it is going to become stagnant”